Concept Craft | Part 9: A Poetic Synthesis
A Poetics of AI Art
This article series is the open access version of my eBook Concept Craft: a Poetics of AI Art.
Chapter 8
Concept Craft emerges as a profound manifestation and testament to the intricate interplay between human agency and technological processes. It represents a profound synthesis of diverse philosophical and artistic perspectives, intertwining aesthetics, poetics, and the nature of concept formation.
At its core, Concept Craft embraces the poetics of prompt writing as a gateway to an infinite variety of aesthetics. Prompt writing serves as a creative act, a poetic gesture that ignites the imagination and sets forth the generative mechanisms of the AI system. It is through these carefully crafted prompts that a vast potential of artistic expression is unleashed, allowing for an expansive range of visual outcomes that resonate with the intricate fabric of human perception.
In Concept Craft, Hegelian material thinking permeates the creative process. The notion of artists as material thinkers is embraced, where the artist’s engagement with the AI system becomes a dialectical dance between intention and emergence. The materiality of the AI-generated images acts as a catalyst for the artist’s conceptual exploration, as the interplay of thought and matter unfolds in a dynamic and reciprocal manner.
Drawing insights from Deleuze and Guattari, Concept Craft acknowledges the transformative nature of concepts. It perceives the AI prompt as a Deleuzian assemblage, an amalgamation of ideas, desires, and cultural references that serve as the raw materials for artistic creation. The AI system, with its algorithmic intelligence, becomes a conduit for the artist’s conceptual exploration, bringing forth new connections, juxtapositions, and unforeseen possibilities.
Eleanor Rosch’s theories on fuzzy logic and family resemblance in category formation contribute to the conceptual foundation of Concept Craft. The recognition of fuzzy boundaries between concepts allows for the emergence of novel and unexpected relationships between images. The notion of family resemblance adds depth and complexity to the understanding of categories, where AI-generated images exhibit shared traits, yet retain their individuality and unique aesthetic qualities.
Within the realm of Concept Craft, hermeneutic slippage becomes a pivotal phenomenon. The interplay between prompt writing and image output gives rise to a dynamic and evolving process of interpretation. Hermeneutic slippage underscores the fluidity of meaning, inviting viewers to engage with the AI-generated art in a multiplicity of ways, as interpretations shift and unfold.
Ultimately, Concept Craft is situated within the realm of neo-conceptual art. It embraces the radical possibilities offered by AI-generated art, transcending conventional boundaries of artistic expression. Through its fusion of aesthetics, technology, cognitive science and philosophy, Concept Craft invites us to reimagine the very nature of artistic creation, challenging established notions of authorship, interpretation, and the role of concepts in shaping our understanding and experience of the world.
In its grand synthesis, Concept Craft invites us to traverse new frontiers of artistic expression, where the convergence of human imagination and AI capabilities gives birth to profound and transformative artistic works and processes.
All Articles in This Series
Concept Craft | Part 1: Preface and Introduction
Concept Craft | Part 2: Poetics and Aesthetics
Concept Craft | Part 3: Material Thinking
Concept Craft | Part 4: The Concept of the Concept
Concept Craft | Part 5: Assemblage Theory
Concept Craft | Part 6: Fuzzy Logic & Family Resemblances
Concept Craft | Part 7: Hermeneutic Slippage
Concept Craft | Part 8: Conceptual Art
Concept Craft | Part 9: A Poetic Synthesis
Acknowledgement
As discussed in the Introduction to this series, this text is AI-generated albiet of course with intentional prompting on my part.
